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The Secret to Achieving Creative Flow
All you have to do is cooperate with a demon
Sometimes hard work pays off, but sometimes it makes things harder. If you’ve ever struggled to fall asleep, you know what I’m talking about. It’s always easier to fall back asleep when you stop trying so hard.
Writing can feel that way, too. Sometimes I brainstorm, I outline, I edit, and I end up with a blah draft. So I brainstorm and outline and edit more, and the second draft is a little less blah, but it still needs work. I continue this process until I have a draft that’s pretty good — or at least not completely terrible. This is the writing process, and I accept it.
But then are those moments when the writing flows effortlessly — process be damned. These moments always happen when I’m in the car or on a walk or in the shower. I’m minding my own business, or no business at all, and — bam! — inspiration strikes. I stop what I’m doing and grab a notebook, and the words ooze onto the page like syrup on pancakes.
Earlier this year, I took a poetry class to get back in touch with my creativity. Our instructor had us read Federico García Lorca’s essay “Theory and Play of The Duende.” The duende is a mischievous, impish spirit that’s often associated with Spanish folklore, though it’s referenced in other cultures, too. From an artistic perspective, duende is synonymous with mysterious passion, unfettered creativity, and the energy that allows a flamenco dancer to sound like this. Lorca writes:
The arrival of the duende presupposes a radical change to all the old kinds of form, brings totally unknown and fresh sensations, with the qualities of a newly created rose, miraculous, generating an almost religious enthusiasm… the duende loves the edge, the wound, and draws close to places where forms fuse in a yearning beyond visible expression.
The duende feels otherworldly, wild, and willful. It is fluid rather than fixed. Feeling rather than thinking. It exists whether you have a label for it or not.
